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MST3K 704 - The Incredible Melting Man
The Movie Synopsis An astronaut returns from a trip to Saturn with a strange malady that causes him to melt and murder. Notes * A scene that was cut from the MST3K episode shows the blonde model and the photographer bickering until they find the body of the dead fisherman that Steve attacked earlier. The Episode Host Segments Prologue: Mike and the bots play a little baseball. Crow, the umpire, says, "Hiyreah!" repeatedly, and Mike keeps getting hit by balls thrown by Servo. Segment One: Mike's jaw was injured in the fight with Servo. Crow's Earth vs. Soup screenplay is being made into a movie, with Dr. F and Pearl in charge of the money. Crow says he will stand by his script, but he immediately gives in to Pearl's demands. Segment Two: Dr. F and Pearl take a very expensive (and ultimately pointless) shuttle ride to the SOL for a script conference. Mike tears the centers out of bagels at Crow's command; Crow leaves leaves to get Pellegrinos and the conference goes on without him. Lots of confusion abounds with the script revisions. The Forresters leave just before Crow returns, and he learns that he has missed the entire meeting. Segment Three: Crow directs his movie, which features Mike as Kevin Bacon and Gypsy as his love interest. Judy (actually Servo) helps as the assistant director. Crow gets two takes of the only scene before Movie Sign because he is so carried away with his new director's scarf. Segment Four: Dr. F leads a focus group for Earth vs. Soup: The Movie. None of them liked the film; they didn't like the plot, it was too short, and it should have been potato soup. Segment Five: Upon learning the fate of his movie, Crow flips out: "I come to you with a movie, you supposedly get me $30 million to make it, you take 29.5 million for yourself, I get a lousy $800, I don't get any credit, and my movie's released as a trailer!?!" Stinger: Dr. Ted Nelson’s weird old mother-in-law says, "Let’s get the hell out of here!" Other Notes Guest Stars *''Gary'': Jim Mallon *''Doug'': Paul Chaplin *''Cindy'': Beth McKeever *''Tony'': Ben Mooers *''Other Focus Group Members'': Barbara Tebben, Helena Espinosa, Kelly Schrant Miscellaneous *The host segments in this episode are meant to satirize the Brains own tumultuous experiences bringing Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie to the big screen. *Director Crow is wearing a Deep 13 hat. Callbacks * Tom is singing "Are you happy in your work" as segment 1 begins. (''I Accuse My Parents'') * M&tB sing a few bars from "Only Love Pads the Film." (''The Side Hackers'') * "What’s the matter, don’t you like it?" (''The Brute Man'') * "You always were a good judge of men, Deathstalker." (''Deathstalker'') * "Ted Nelson was found alive, and of normal size. There was no Melting Man." (''Monster A-Go Go''). Obscure References *''"Wanna talk to Maude Frickert?"'' A reference to comedian Jonathan Winters (who General Perry bears more than a passing resemblance to), specifically his character "Maude Frickert", a sharp-tongued old woman. *''"We saved Kuwait again!"'' As Iraqi forces retreated from Kuwait at the end of the Gulf War, they set fire to well over 600 oil wells, resulting in one of the worst environmental disasters of all time. * "Global warming is a big ruse by some liberal pablum-puking liberals!" "Pablum-puking liberals" was the favored insult of conservative firebrand talk show host Morton Downey Jr. *''"Edie Sedgwick, NOOOO!!!"'' Edie Sedgwick, who appeared in several films directed by Andy Warhol, was severely burned in 1966 after falling asleep with a lit cigarette. * "Can you stir the tanks without killing us this time?" The explosion that brought an early end to the Apollo 13 mission occurred just after the order was given to "stir the tanks"—the fans to stir the contents of the service module's liquid oxygen tanks emitted a spark that triggered the explosion. * "The Russians! Hey, Giorgy!" A reference to an SCTV sketch about a Russian sitcom called "Hey, Giorgy!". * "You're looking live at the parquet floor of a NASA hospital..." A reference to the line with which Brent Musburger started most episodes of The NFL Today ''(for example, "You're looking live at Giants Stadium...") * ''"Keith Moon in the hospital." The drummer for The Who, notorious for destroying hotel rooms while on tour. * "I just realized- I'm LeRoy Neiman!" A reference to commercially successful artist LeRoy Neiman. In MST's The Screaming Skull, the Brains suggested that incineration was the most appropriate fate for his creative output. * Windows 95 references The fisherman looks like Bill Gates, whose company Microsoft had recently released the Windows 95 operating system. * "NASA's a sucker for any Very Large Array salesman!" A reference to the Very Large Array, an installation of radio astronomy dishes located in New Mexico. * "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day / To the last syllable of recorded time..." A line from Act 5 of Macbeth. * "I’m gonna squeeze one of lemons and let the juice run down my body!" A reference to the 1980 film Atlantic City, which starred Susan Sarandon, and featured a scene where she squeezed the juice from lemons over her naked body. *''"Don't talk about the baby, Martha."'' ''A recurring line from the stage play ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Crow is mimicking the voice of actor Richard Burton, who starred in the film adaptation (though they say "the boy", not "the baby" in the film). * "Ted Nelson was found alive, and of normal size. There was no melting man." A reference to the nonsensical ending of Monster a Go-Go. * "Right now, I'm learning that even though this movie was about 80 minutes long, it felt like ''Berlin Alexanderplatz." Originally aired as a 14-part miniseries on West German television, ''Berlin Alexanderplatz was released as a 15 1/2 hour long movie in the US. Video Release * Commercially released on DVD by Shout! Factory in July 2016 as part of Volume XXXVI, a 4-disc set along with Stranded in Space, City Limits, and Riding with Death. * The DVD also included interviews with The Incredible Melting Man Writer/Director William Sachs, Rick Baker, and Greg Cannom, along with theatrical trailers. Category:MST3K Episodes Category:Season 7 Category:1970s movies Category:R-rated movies Category:Episodes directed by Kevin Murphy Category:Movies with nudity edited out Category:Movies edited for violent content